San Fransisco

We went into San Fran the day after Thanksgiving. We packed a picnic lunch and sat on these hard steps. The beautiful grass all around us was a bit wet, which didn't stop the kids from rolling down a hill opposite where we were sitting! The seagulls joined us for lunch and one even got away with a bag of chips. I think Garron chased it down and got the bag away from it.

After eating we checked out the water and a guy who was stacking the rocks on the beach. Evidently he does this for a living of sorts. Randy said he is famous on the internet. People pay him. It was rather amazing to see how he stacked the rocks and how patient he was about getting them just right so they would stay.

We were practically under the Golden Gate Bridge when we walked to an old fort nearby. We got there a little too late to actually tour it or even get a real good look around but it was cool anyway. Then we drove up onto the bridge and walked across some of it. The moon came out way before it got dark and I thought it was cool right over Alchatraz. On the way back from the fort, a sailboat added to the scenery and with the new colors I decided I needed another picture.

Thanksgiving Day

We had our Thanksgiving dinner with the Hahns at a nearby Stake Center. Ronny and Jen were in town with their kids, Sarah and Carrie were in from school at BYU Idaho (Randy's family) and Mitchel came from the base he is stationed at in Southern California. We had visitors stop in too.



The food was excellent and surprisingly, the kids entertained themselves and each other with only a few things. Most of their time was spent on the stage and they organized a play for us. (That was done in Lake Tahoe too and is now a bit of a tradition I guess.) The adults sat and talked, called other family members and played in the gym with the kids occasionally. It is wonderful to get together with people that you are loosely related to in this life and find that you enjoy their company and appreciate their spirits, making being away from family you know a bit more bearable. Thanks Hahns for including us in your family holiday!


Sarah is Randy's baby sister, but the only reason she is sitting at the kids table with my girls is because they asked her to. She and Carrie were so sweet to the children and played with them. Uncle Mitchel provided many shoulder rides and climbing (on him) experiences. And a friend of Lindsays brought the girls a bag of "girl goodies". I am grateful for people, family or not, who love my children and show it through the way they treat them.

We're back

The fifth graders have to do a report every year and to present it to family and friends they have a "Wax Museum" where they set up the poster boards and dress up as the person they did their report about. Mardi did Pocahontas. She got almost 100% on the report and we will find out her grade on the presentation after returning to school at the begining of the year. Our big let down was that I was sure the paper we got said the presentations would last from 5:30-6:30 and I arrived with the other girls just after six. (Joel was still trying to get there.) There were far too many parking spaces available and just after I parked, Tersa said that Mardi was there. They finished at 6:00 and we had missed it! I felt so badly for her and angry at the same time. She was sure the paper we'd gotten had said 6:30 also and she was crying. A friends mom stopped to talk in the parking lot and complimented her on her poses for the "wax" part which I thought was very sweet of her. She knew Mardi was upset.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

I will have lots to catch up on next week when we return from California. We get to spend Thanksgiving with Joel's sister Lindsay and her family, Joel's brother Mitchell is coming and we are actually having Thanksgiving dinner at the Hahn's (Lindsay's in-laws.) We can't wait! We had such fun with them when we went to Lake Tahoe. But, for those who know me, you know the 9-10 hour drive is gonna about kill me!!! At least we aren't going through snow!

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Harvest Festival

We had our ward harvest festival this last friday. Another thing that I am glad to have over. (This one we got to plan without a second counselor to bear some of the burden.)

We made wanted posters and used them as part of our decoration. We had a desert scene on one wall with a hitching post, old saddles and straw where people were able to get pictures with their families.

Food consisted of shredded beef sandwiches, baked beans, cole slaw, green and fruit salads, dutch oven potatoes and apple cobbler with ice cream. Yum!!

It was a bit stressful since some people didn't follow through on the assignments they agreed to take on and several people did not show up with the food they offered to bring. To top it off, we planned for 120 people and many more showed up. But we had activities for the children and lots of people said they had a great time. Mission accomplished.

The other side of the Barbers

Keddi wanted to be Jasmine this year and for some reason switched to this. But we are back to wanting to be one of the princesses next year. We shall see. Gone are the pretty costumes days for this girl I think!

School Halloween parties

Shinara's preschool is held at a High School and most of the "teachers" in there are students. They took the kids to several classrooms around the school to Trick-or-Treat. The teachers got a kick out of seeing the different costumes, but most of the kids in the classes seemed bored about the whole thing. (Perhaps they didn't have time to get out of the stupor they'd been in while their teacher was talking.) Anyway, Shinara enjoyed the comments she got occasionaly about how cute she looked and when we returned to class there were plenty of goodies to choose from for snack. She actually wasn't that interested in food. She wanted to do preschool stuff. So she went off to play.

Thank heaven that Shinara's party was held on Tuesday because Keddi's was on Wednesday and that day was already packed with things for me to do! Shinara came with me to Keddi's class and was included in the activities they had for the children. They decorated cookies first, went to a different table to eat them and have some juice, then played some Halloween Bingo and finished off with making tootsie pop ghosts. The elementary school kids had not been allowed to wear their costumes and were encouraged to wear black and orange instead. Mardi's class only had doughnuts at one point to celebrate. Tersa elected not to go to school in costume and she was not allowed to attend the dance after school which was their way of celebrating. We told her that the church allows dance attendance after the age of 14. But she may be allowed to go next year because the acitvity was more like a carnival than a dance!

We weren't familiar with Halloween goings on at school because we have always been on our track break. This year we will be missing Christmas stuff, much to Keddi's dissappointment.

Happy Halloween

This year was a bit different for us because Tersa went Trick-or-treating with a friend this year, in another neighborhood! I wasn't going to let her go. I'm shocked at how many teenage kids go after their early teens. But she went and had fun. I think we will be hosting parties when the girls get too old to go from house to house. (And when we have the room to host them!) Anyway, here are their costumes. Keddi lost all the love for her character after I painted her face. She thought she couldn't move the muscles in her face. We got her over that so that she could cackle and then she found it frustrating to ride her broom, keep her hat on and keep up with Shinara and Mardi.

Shinara began the night with gusto, running from house to house and telling people to have a good night, commenting to them about their decorations and trying to show me what she'd been given at each house. After just two streets she slowed down on her own and by the time we got to the back of the neighborhood she was done! I had to carry her bucket between houses on the last two streets and all the way home because it had gotten so full. But they enjoyed themselves and are stocked for the next several months! Not many people came by the house so we are stocked too. (Not good.) And there is talk of what we will be on the next halloween...then the second...and the third.